Cross feeder device especially a cooling bed for rod material

ABSTRACT

A cross feeder such as a cooling bed for steel rod incorporates two moving gratings arranged in succession driven with antiphased movements by a common drive, and a stationary grating. One set of eccentrics produces horizontal movements of the moving gratings while another set of eccentrics produces vertical movements by means of inclined plane surfaces. This arrangement provides a balance drive for the vertical lift and lower movements.

United States Patent 1191 Buchheit 1 Oct. 2, 1973 [54] CROSS FEEDER DEVICE ESPECIALLY A 1,315,670 9/1919 Keller 198/219 COOLING BED FOR ROD MATERIAL 2,930,333 3/!960 Leeuwrik 198/219 [75] Inventor: Otto Karl Buchheit, St. Ingbert/Saar, FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS Germany 477,572 5/1929 Germany 198/219 [73] Assignee: Moeller & Neumann GmbI-I,

Ingbert/Saar, Germany Primary ExaminerRichard E. Aegerter [22] Fi'ed. Jan 7 1972 Assistant Examiner-Joseph E. Valenza I Attorney-John J. Dennemeyer [21] Appl. N0.: 216,148

[57] ABSTRACT [30] Foreign Application Priority Data Dec. 28 1970 Germany P 20 63 942.3 A feeder such as a bed Steel inco" porates tv'vo moving gratings arranged in succession 52 us. (:1. 198/219 drive" with movements by a Comm" 51 Int. Cl B65g 25/04 drive, statimary gratingone set eccenm 58 Field of Search 198/219 220 DA Pmduces hmizonta' mvemems "Wing gratings- 198/220 220 while another set of eccentrics produces vertical movemerits by means of inclined plane surfaces. This ar- [56] References Cited rangement provides a balance drive for the vertical lift UNITED STATES PATENTS and mmemems' 3,416,646 12/1968 Boos et a1. 198/219 2 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures PATENIED w ems SHEET 2 BF 2 CROSS FEEDER DEVICE ESPECIALLY A COOLING BED FOR ROD MATERIAL The invention relates to a cross feeder device especially a cooling bed for rod material, consisting of a stationary carrier grating for supporting the material to be conveyed between the feed steps composed of composite horizontal and vertical movements of at least one driven support grating.,I-Iereinafter the subject matter of the invention will be referred to as a cooling bed although the invention is applicable to any cross feeder device of the type referred to.

In the first place it should be noted that cooling beds may be provided with two driven support gratings which operate in the manner of a walking beam conveyor that is with anti-phased rotary movements. One construction of such a cooling bed is shown in German Specification No. 477,572. Since both support gratings embody a common driving element consisting of a single'eccentric shaft, kinetic balancing as regards the vertical movements of the oppositely displaced carrier gratings is obtained which considerably reduces the driving power required for the cooling bed as compared with cooling beds with a single moving support grating. On the other hand cooling beds with a stationary support grating are much more economical to produce and require less servicing for which reason cooling beds operating with a walking beam movement are comparatively seldom used.

The object of the invention is to combine the advantages of both classes of cooling bed, that is to say to provide a power saving balancing of the upwardly and downwardly moving masses for a cooling bed with a stationary support grating.

According to the invention two support gratings are provided arranged functionally one after the other in the feed direction and driven in an oscillatory manner relatively one to the other and to the stationary support grating, as well as a common driving element at least for the vertical displacements of the movable support gratings, by which the latter gratings are balanced and are driven with a phase displacement of 180 one to the other. The drives for the opposite vertical movements of the two halves of the carrier grating are to have in other words a common driving element operating in such a way as to divide the power between them.

As referred to the said German Specification No.

477,572 the invention is carried out in such a way that the two support gratings are disposed one beyond the otheras seen in the feed direction, a common stationary support grating is provided which extends over the whole length of the cooling bed, and a common driving member for the two movable support gratings is used on which 'the weight of the support grating which is moving downwardly at any particular moment exerts a driving torque while the other support grating moves upwardly. Both support grating sections are actuated like a walking beam conveyor but co-operate with the stationary support grating in reference to the transverse feeding of the material being handled. At the boundary the support grating sections must overlap in order to permit transferof the material from the first section of the cooling bed to the second. At the boundary point the two support grating sections thus co-operate like a walking beam cooling bed, that is to say at the boundary point the stationary grating may be interrupted.

The common driving member conveniently consists of a main driving shaft extending transversely to the feed direction, which is provided with pairs of first eccentrics offset at 180 from one another for the oppositely directed horizontal movement of the two movable support gratings, and with second eccentrics offset at to the first eccentrics for the opposed vertical movement of the two carrier gratings.

In a particularly simple arrangement the oppositely directed movements of the two movable support gratings can be derived from the rotation of the eccentrics by the fact that the pairs of first eccentrics stand in each case in contact with a roller which is carried by one of the two movable support gratings, and that the second eccentrics are in contact with diametrically opposed rollers which rest on support surfaces inclined one to the other and are connected through diametrical rod members and further lifter devices and to one of the two movable support gratings in each case. The 'weight of the two movable support gratings is absorbed through the lifter drives, the rod members and the rollers bearing by gravity action on the two eccentrics, by the second'eccentrics common to the diametrical rollers whereby the desired effect of balancing the two oppositely connected support gratings is obtained.

A cooling bed for feeding rod material is shown in the drawing as one constructional example and in which:

FIG. I is a cross-section transversely to the main drive shaft with a view looking towards one of the several second eccentrics present for the vertical movement,

FIG. 2 is a partial view showing the multiple'pairs of first eccentrics which are offset at to one another,

FIG. 3 is a section on the line III-III in FIG. I and FIGS. 4 to 7 show diagrammatically the movement procedures of the two support gratings in the region of their boundary points, in conjunction with diagrammatic views of the bearings for the eccentrics pertaining to the different positions of the support grating.

According to FIG. 1 the cooling bed consists of two movable cooling beds 10a, 10b arranged functionally .one beyond the other and having rake bars 11a, 11b as 15a. The rake bars are carried by means of supports 14 from the base supports l2, l3 and 15.

The stationary support grating comprises'apart from the rake bars 21, cross members 22, supports 24 and supports 25 resting on the foundation which carry pairs of guide rollers 27 on inwardly directed bearing members 26 and between which the outer supports 15 of the movable support gratings 10a and 10b extend.

In order to convey the material being handled the support gratings 10a and 10b must be lifted relatively to the stationary support grating 20, moved horizontally, lowered and again returned along a horizontal-return stroke to the starting position shown as is indicated by the chain dot circular paths indicated in FIG. 4.

The drive for the oscillatory movement of the support gratings a and 10b both in the vertical and in the horizontal direction is arranged as follows:

A single main drive shaft 30 is provided which extends transversely to the rake bars 11a, 11b, 21 and which carries a number of eccentrics according to the width of the cooling bed. To commence with one pair of first eccentrics 32, 33 which are partially covered in FIG. I and better recognisable in FIG. 2 it will be seen that a pair of first eccentrics offset by 180 are used for the horizontal opposed oscillating movements of the two support gratings 10a and 10b.

These horizontal movements are obtained by the engagement of the rollers 35 on the eccentrics 32 which are carried through supports 34a from the left-hand support grating 10a and of rollers 36 on the eccentrics 33 and are carried by supports 34b of the right-hand support grating 10b. It will be seen at once that the supports 34a and 34b and thus the two carrier gratings concerned move horizontally in opposite directions when the two eccentrics 32, 33 rotate.

The requirement for a continuous contact between the rollers 35, 36 on the one hand and the eccentrics 32, 33 on the other hand is that oppositely directed components of forces are operative on the support gratings 10a and 10b which hold the rollers 35, 36 pressed against their respective eccentrics. This effect is obtained from the balancing according to the invention of the two cooling beds 10a and 10b relatively to a common driving element, namely the main drive shaft 30, as will be explained below.

The driving device for the opposed vertical movements of the two support gratings 10a and 10b is arranged as follows:

In FIG. 1 there will be seen an eccentric 40 as the foremost eccentric of a group. This eccentric is in functional contact with a lifter roller 42 on one side of a linkage member or push rod 44 and the lifter roller 42 rests on an inclined bearing surface 43 sloped towards the driving shaft 30. Likewise a lifter roller 46 supported at the outer end of the push rod'44 rests on a similarly inclined bearing surface 47. The lifter rollers 42 and 46 are, as will be seen from FIG. 3, not the only rollers which carry the push rod 44 since the movable support grating 10a is freely supported on carrier rollers on the bearing surfaces a already referred to, which rollers must be freely rotatable independently of the lifter rollers 42 and 46 rolling up and down the inclined bearing surfaces 43 and 47.

As will be seen from FIG. 3 the fork ends 440 of the push rods 44 have an outer pair of rollers 46 of smaller diameter and a central support roller 48 of larger diameter, all the rollers being co-axial. The lifter roller pair 46 is engaged exclusively with the inclined bearing surface 47 and the carrier roller 48 is engaged exclusively with the bearing surface 15a, for which reason the inclined bearing surface 47 is relieved in the region of the support roller 48.

The same arrangement of rollers is also provided in the region of the lifter rollers 42 on the driving side. It is preferable at this point to provide a third independently supported roller which has engagement exclusively as a sensing roller with the eccentric 40. Since it is not absolutely necessary that the roller arrangements on the two sides are co-axial it is possible to attach a lug, not shown, to the spindle 42a of the lifter roller 42 which carries the aforesaid sensing roller at its free linearly guided end.

The vertical drive for the right-hand carrier grating 10b consists in the same way of a lifter roller 49 and a further push rod 52 arranged oppositely to the push rod 44, with a roller arrangement 54 at the far end, wherein the roller arrangements 49 and 54 are the same as those of the push rod 44, that is to say they embody lifter rollers running on inclined bearing surfaces 51 and 55 directed towards the driving shaft 30 and carrier rollers 48 co-operating with bearing surfaces 150 of the upright supports 15.

The position of the two support gratings 10a, 10b shown in FIG. 4 corresponds to that of FIG. 1. The rake bar 21 of the stationary support grating will be seen which bridges over the boundary between the two relatively movable rake bars 11a and 11b. In FIGS. 4a, 4b and 4c the positions of the second eccentrics 32, 33 of this assembly together with the rollers 35, 36 carried by the support gratings and the second eccentrics 40 with the diametrically opposed lifter rollers 42, 49 are shown.

After a partial revolution of the main drive shaft 30 in the direction of the arrow through the rake bars 1 la and 11b according to FIG. 4 move towards one another with a simultaneous opposed variation in level as shown in FIG. 5 in conjunction with FIGS. 5a to 50. A round rod 56 lying in one notch of the stationary rake 21 has been taken over in FIG. 5 by the rake bar lla.

After a further partial revolution of the eccentrics through 90 from FIG. 5 towards FIG. 6 all the rake bars have again the same level, the movable rake bars 11a and 11b have run so far into line that they overlap in the region of the boundary point as shown in FIG. 6. The round rod 56 is deposited by the movable rake bar 11a in the notch, corresponding to the boundary position.

With a further partial revolution of the eccentrics through 90 an opposed vertical movement between the movable rake bars 11a and 11b of the carrier gratings 10a and 10b occurs which in the case of FIG. -'7 is opposite to the vertical movement of FIG. 5. Simultaneously the two carrier gratings commence to move again away from one another. The round bar 56 is picked up by the rake bars 11b of the carrier grating 10b and is deposited in the next notch of the stationary rake bars 21 after the next partial revolution of the eccentrics corresponding to the position of the support grating according to FIG. 4. It will be noted in FIG. 7 that a new bar 57 will receive the same treatment as the bar 56 in FIG. 4 in the next working cycle commencing again with FIG. 4.

If the various rotary positions of the second eccentrics 40 and the resulting positions of the support rollers 42 and 49 are followed through according to FIGS. 4a, 5a, 6a and 7a it will be clear that the two carrier gratings 10a and 10b are balanced over the whole driving device for executing the vertical movement, that is for the common main drive shaft 30 with the two eccentrics 40. When in the course of a partial revolution of the two eccentrics 40 from FIG. 4a towards FIG. 5a the support rollers 42 are compelled to run on to the inclined support surface 43, for which purpose a lifting force is required dependent on the weight of the carrier grating 10a, the power demand necessary for the purpose apart from overcoming friction losses does not have to be taken from the main driving shaft 30 since the lifter rollers 49 rolling downwardly on the in clined bearing surfaces 51, on which the whole weight of the downwardly moving carrier grating b is operative, assists the rotation of the eccentrics 40.

What is claimed is:

1. Cross feeder such as a cooling bed for bar material comprising a stationary carrier grating for receiving the material to be conveyed between feed steps consisting of co-ordinated horizontal and vertical movements of two driven carrier gratints arranged functionally one beyond the other in the feed direction, means for driving such moving carrier gratings with anti-phased oscillation movements, said driving means comprising a main shaft as common drive extending transversely to the feed direction and being provided with pairs of first movable carrier gratings repectively. 

1. Cross feeder such as a cooling bed for bar material comprising a stationary carrier grating for receiving the material to be conveyed between feed steps consisting of coordinated horizontal and vertical movements of two driven carrier gratints arranged functionally one beyond the other in the feed direction, means for driving such moving carrier gratings with anti-phased oscillation movements, said driving means comprising a main shaft as common drive extending transversely to the feed direction and being provided with pairs of first eccentrics offSet at 180* to one another for anti-phased horizontal movements of the two movable carrier gratings and with second eccentrics offset at 90* to the first eccentrics for anti-phased vertical movements of the two carrier gratings.
 2. Cross feeder according to claim 1, wherein the pairs of first eccentrics are in contact with respective rollers carried by the two movable support gratings and that the second eccentrics are in contact with diametrically arranged rollers which rest on mutually inclined support surfaces and are connected through diametral connecting members and further lifter drives to two movable carrier gratings repectively. 